It’s that time of year again for people like me, or someone with an itch to write creatively for once, to start to gear up for that caffeine-induced writing contest against yourself known as NaNowriMo (National Novel Writing Month). And though I wrote an article last year about why you should do NaNo, this year I figured I should tailor it more to my experience right now. And right now, I am struggling to create some semblance of an outline so I don’t have a repeat of last year’s utter mess (okay, it wasn’t a mess, but it wasn’t how I wanted it to turn out).

This year I’m trying something a little different. I’m writing technically with the same characters and world and location and some events of two past NaNo stories, but the way I’m writing the story and hopefully the way events happen will be different. For example, I’m trying a third person narrative style instead of first person, and starting the story in a different place. As for specific parts of the story, I’m still a little stuck. And that’s where something fun called inspiration comes in.

Inspiration can be found in all kinds of unlikely places. I’ve gotten some of my favorite ideas during the strangest times, times when I should not be thinking about stories but something else. I think about what my characters would do in my everyday scenarios, like taking certain classes, attending a concert, going to a meeting, or messing around their room. I read my favorite books and watch my favorite shows to see what I like and what I don’t like. What are my favorite things about them, and what are my least favorite?

My favorite trick of finding ideas is to just get in the right mindset and sit somewhere by myself and just let the ideas flow. I talk to my characters, think through different strategies, and let my typing fingers do the rest of the work of recording my stream of consciousness in a never-ending list of bullet points. I also like reading different writing prompts to get ideas, trying to put the scenario or dialogue in with characters or a world I already know.

Everyone needs inspiration for different things. Artists for their projects, musicians for compositions, writers for stories, scientists for experiments, businessmen for objectives. And for any person who needs to be creative for a large part of their lives, becoming burnt out becomes a real possibility that can happen more and more often.

I hope my little take on inspiration helps some of you find it. I for one am looking forward to tackling NaNo this year. This yearly challenge and annual visit to my favorite world is something I always look forward to.